The present invention relates to an articulated curtain in the form of interlocking slat members which are assembled such as to form a shutter or awning, or a combined shutter/awning, for protecting an opening in a wall. More particularly, the present invention relates to a protective roll-type shutter or awning formed of a plurality of interlocking pivoting slat members.
It is known to design a roll-type shutter or awning in the form of an articulated curtain which can be rolled away by winding the interlocking slats comprising the curtain around a drum or rotatable shaft. When desired, such a curtain of pivotable slats can be extended by unrolling the curtain from the drum or rotatable shaft so as to provide protection against damage to a window or door caused by rain, snow, high wind or vandalism. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,294,302 and co-pending application Ser. No. 337,664, now abandoned for Shutter and Awning Material, both assigned to the same assignee as the present invention.
More particularly, the aforesaid U.S. patent discloses a shutter and awning device wherein a driven shaft retracts an articulated shutter curtain. The driven shaft is provided with a series of splines formed about its periphery. A collar having a bore of complementary shape to that of the splines on the driven shaft is assembled over the shaft on either end thereof. Formed with the collar is a driving lug having a lower portion and an upper portion. The upper portion of the driving lug is adapted to be received by a rod-like projection extending along an edge of the uppermost slat of a shutter curtain. Therefore, when the driven shaft is rotated the first slat is moved about the axis of the driven shaft and, due to a force transmitting relationship between the uppermost slat and the other slats of the shutter curtain, the uppermost slat pulls up the other slats and rolls the shutter curtain around the driven shaft.
There are disadvantages to the above-described means for winding up, or down, a rollable, articulated shutter curtain of pivotable interlocked slats. In general, these disadvantages are also present in the other known prior art winding mechanisms. One of these disadvantages is that the prior art means provided for attaching the top slat of the shutter curtain to the rotatable drum or shaft may require that a particular edge of the slat, which is compatible with the attaching means of the drum or rotatable shaft, be positioned adjacent to the attaching means of the winding mechanism which complicates the process of assemblying the shutter curtain and attaching the curtain to the winding mechanism.
Furthermore, it has been discovered that a shutter curtain wound around a driven shaft tends to bind upon winding and is not wound in a uniform shape around the lug.
Another difficulty with known mechanisms for winding up or rolling down articulated shutter curtains is that they are either not suitable for use with an electric motor, or, after the winding mechanism of a shutter/awning assembly has been installed, the electric motor is not readily accessible for repair.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved winding mechanism for a rollable shutter curtain which remedies the inconveniences, which is simple in design and which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.